Redaction: Moroni states: “I take mine account.… ” Thus, he announces that the book of Ether is actually his redaction of it. Moroni treats Ether somewhat as his father approached the original sources available to him, sometimes quoting them, sometimes only describing them. One of the sources Moroni was not using was the engraved stone that gave a history of Coriantumr, the last Jaredite king:
And it came to pass in the days of Mosiah, there was a large stone brought unto him with engravings on it; and he did interpret the engravings by the gift and power of God.
And they gave an account of one Coriantumr, and the slain of his people. And Coriantumr was discovered by the people of Zarahemla; and he dwelt with them for the space of nine moons.
It also spake a few words concerning his fathers. And his first parents came out from the tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people; and the severity of the Lord fell upon them according to his judgments, which are just; and their bones lay scattered in the land northward. (Omni 1:20–22)
This stone was a king stela. The book of Ether tells Coriantumr’s story but not from this official royal record. Rather, Moroni is using the twenty-four plates that a scouting expedition of Limhites found when they were attempting to locate and seek help from Zarahemla. Limhi explained to Ammon:
And the king said unto him: Being grieved for the afflictions of my people, I caused that forty and three of my people should take a journey into the wilderness, that thereby they might find the land of Zarahemla, that we might appeal unto our brethren to deliver us out of bondage.
And they were lost in the wilderness for the space of many days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters, having discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.
And for a testimony that the things that they had said are true they have brought twenty-four plates which are filled with engravings, and they are of pure gold. (Mosiah 8:7–9)
Limhi was unable to read the engravings, but Ammon assured him that Mosiah2, a seer, could translate them (Mosiah 8:12–17). Mosiah, in fact, did so:
Therefore he took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, and also the plates of Nephi, and all the things which he had kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi;
And this he did because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know concerning those people who had been destroyed.
And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.
Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages;
And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people;
And whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times.
Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam. (Mosiah 28:11–17)
Moroni therefore, at least theoretically, had available both the original twenty-four plates and also Mosiah’s translation of them: Mormon refers to both the original and the translation in Alma 37:21, where Alma instructs Helaman to keep knowledge of the Jaredite secret combinations from the Nephites. Mosiah had used the Urim and Thummim to make his translation (Mosiah 28:13), and Moroni had the Urim and Thummim (“interpreters”) in his possession. He included them with the record so that a future generation could read the sealed portion of the brother of Jared’s vision (Ether 4:5). It is therefore possible that Moroni made a fresh translation of Ether’s plates, but it seems unnecessary for him to translate what a prophet had already translated and then abridge it. It seems more logical that Moroni abridged Mosiah’s translation of the twenty-four plates. Sidney B. Sperry has made the same suggestion:
If Moroni employed the twenty-four plates at first hand, it would be necessary for him to translate them before abridging, because they were written in the Jaredite language. This process would entail a tremendous amount of labor—quite unnecessary, so it seems to us. The labor involved may be judged from the fact that Moroni himself stated—if he didn’t speak lightly or casually—that he did not write the hundredth part of the plates of Ether (Ether 15:33). Our current edition of the abridgment of the Book of Ether occupies a little over thirty-one printed pages. We may assume that a translation of the entire Book of Ether in modern dress would occupy conservatively about four volumes the size of our whole Book of Mormon—a wholly unnecessary preliminary to the abridging process if a translation were already available to Moroni.
Now, it must be remembered that many years before Moroni’s day the younger Mosiah had translated the record of Ether into the Nephite language (Mosiah 28:11–20). Why should Moroni go to the unnecessary labor of retranslating the twenty-four plates before abridging them? Mosiah’s translation was undoubtedly one of the literary treasures left by Mormon in the original Hill Cumorah.